Lookout Mountain resident keeps old friends connected with Christmas meal

The now-shuttered Shoney's Big Boy Golden Gateway restaurant hosted the first of B.B. Branton's annual post-Christmas lunches in 1977.
The now-shuttered Shoney's Big Boy Golden Gateway restaurant hosted the first of B.B. Branton's annual post-Christmas lunches in 1977.
photo Town and Country Restaurant is one of several former local restaurants that hosted B.B. Branton's post-Christmas lunch with old friends and subsequently shut down.

Lookout Mountain resident B.B. Branton has always been the planning type. As a young boy, he was the one who'd call up the neighborhood kids and let them know what time everyone was meeting at the playground. So it's only natural that more than 50 years later, he's still bringing people together.

Since 1977, minus a couple of years spent living on the West Coast, Branton has gathered a group of old friends - some of whom are high school classmates from McCallie School and others he's known since grammar school on the mountain - for lunch on the day after Christmas.

"I enjoy organizing, keeping up with friends and trying to find them," he said. "Who do you rely on if you don't keep up with friends from long ago?"

The length of time that the group has been getting together for their holiday lunch is well-illustrated by the number of times they've had to change restaurants. They started out at the Big Boy at Fourth and Broad streets, where the statue representing the chain was long ago removed so that both it and the restaurant could be replaced with offices. They then moved to a Shoney's on Broad Street in St. Elmo, until that restaurant closed as well. Town & Country Restaurant on the North Shore's Frazier Avenue was their next location, until it closed down. The group moved on to Big River Grille four or five years ago.

About a dozen attend the lunch each year, some even driving from out of town. One such friend is Bill Asbury, who grew up on Lookout and went to high school with Branton. Asbury has since moved to Dallas, but will be spending Christmas in Augusta, Ga., and plans to make a detour to Chattanooga especially for the gathering.

Asbury feels the drive is worth it because it's important to him to stay connected to his roots and the people with whom he shared his most formative years. He's attended the lunches since 1977.

"These are guys I've known, many of them, virtually all my life," Asbury said.

Branton also organized a reunion back in 2002 for Lookout Mountain School's Class of 1961-63, bringing together 125 fellow alums.

"Not too many people keep up with their grammar school friends," Branton said, recognizing the rarity of the occasion.

Luckily, his former classmates can still rely on Branton's planning abilities, though he thinks "someone else will pick it up" if he should ever stop.

Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com.

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